Dining Disaster
by ihrtryoma
Summary: Houtarou Oreki is out of high school and college and is working as a private detective, his train of though being it would just be simple work like catching cheating boyfriends but cases have a bad habit of find him. In his 24th case this time a murder happens along with Chitanda, Satoshi, and Mayaka when they go to


_Houtarou found himself wondering how on earth crimes seemed to find him again. It was within his knowledge that detectives on TV and anime always seemed to miraculously have someone die. He'd always thought that the notion was ridiculous and didn't happen in real life._

_Now that he was 21 and fresh out of college, he found the idea not as unrealistic as he first thought. He thought of the easiest and less boring ways to make money and have a career. He chose to start up a private detective agency._

_His train of though was 'I'll only have to tail people to catch cheating boyfriends and stuff like that, right?' Biggest mistake of his life, as of now, this was his 23__rd__ case this year._

_He'd been practically bullied into joining Satoshi, Chitanda, and Makaya by Satoshi to have lunch and what happened? In his home town no less, a dead body that's what, but maybe he should start from the beginning._

It was a typical Saturday on his day off and he'd been grumpy because he'd been woken up early by Satoshi demanding to get together for them all to have lunch and coffee. Granted, they hadn't been all together since a last year with how busy they'd been.

Well, at least, he had been busy but he wasn't sure about the rest of them. None of them had changed except maybe he had gotten slightly taller and Mayaka's hair was longer. There had been quite a few interesting characters in the diner because, of all the nerve, every one of them was running late.

What better thing to do when you're bored than people watch? The first woman who had come in was wearing red pants and a yellow shirt as well as sun glasses. She had taken a seat near the front of the diner and snapped at the waitress for coffee and didn't take off her sunglasses.

The next was a man a bit younger than himself, a college student just studying quietly in a corner and sipping coffee. Slightly boring if all was considered but whom was he to talk?

The next was a tall, large man with a thick bandage around his left wedding ring finger. He overheard him talking to the bar tender something about not being able to get a wedding ring on. So, he was obviously married then.

Then, the rude woman with the red pants questioned where to find the restroom in a loud, snappish voice. Houtarou frowned; he just didn't get people sometimes.

The last person sat behind him, he had long hair and despite being good looking seemed to be a jerk. He answered his phone in the middle of the diner talking loudly about meeting an innocent girl and how she was 'majorly hot.'

It was then that the others showed up, Chitanda apologizing gracefully and Mayaka and Satoshi less apologetically.

"So Houtarou, I heard that you started a detective agency recently, get any business?" Fukuro started out with after he had gotten back from the restroom after coming in.

"Hai, too much" Houtarou replied with in slight annoyance.

"A detective? Hmm, I think it suits you a little better than most things, it's also the only thing you get energetic about" Mayaka added.

Chitanda got sparkles in her eyes as she looked at him with wonder; here it comes again, "a detective? I want to see how you solve cases…" blah blah blah and… "I'm curious!" there it is.

"AHHH!" a man screamed from the bathroom, everyone jumped, Houtarou had heard these kinds of screams before. It was terror and many times following terror was "b-blood" the playboy from earlier stammered.

The big man was also there with him; Houtarou had already gotten up and seen the blood under the door. Houtarou attempted to open the door but found it was locked and instead jumped up to look over the stall.

Houtarou eyes went wide then dark, a dead body way in a half fetal position facing away from the door, blood spattered around the body. It was the rude woman from earlier, she was dead. He stuff scattered around her as well as a knife that had been bloodied.

He pulled out his phone and proceeded to call the only number he had on speed dial, the police. His friends walked up to him "looks like you're going to see detective work a lot sooner than you think Miss Chitanda" said in his half monotone voice.

Chitanda nodded grimly, the police arrived on the scene fairly quickly and marked the tape down as well as the detective in charge. He questioned Houtarou first "the door was unlocked but must've been jammed so I looked over the stall" he answered.

Inspector Hara nodded in understanding and proceeded to deduce that she killed by someone outside of the building, a burglar, as the window was open.

Her name was Maka Nanako and had a home outside the city. She also had marks on her throat that could be strangulation and so the Hara suggested that the murderer choked her until she was unconscious and stabbed her and she bled to death.

He suggested it was only a thief looking to make cash but Houtarou had his own thoughts. "Inspector Hara, the window is too clean for the culprit to have made it out the window without making some sort of mess" Houtarou answered.

"If the culprit left out the window then why, with the amount of blood on the floor, would the windows not have a single drop of blood if he had no time to clean up?" Houtarou asked.

"How do you know he couldn't have cleaned the windows before he left?" Inspector Hara countered but Houtarou's green eyes didn't waver.

"If the murderer was in a panic when he or she left, even enough to leave the murder weapon behind how would he be able to clean the window? He or she left the murder weapon behind because they couldn't take it with them. Meaning the murderer is still in the diner" Houtarou explained.

Inspector Hara grumbled under his breath and seemed to lighten when he had thought of a counter to Houtarou's logic. "The body was blocking the door and there's no evidence to suggest the body was ever moved. Plus it's the only window in the bathroom" Ibara mentioned, looking at Houtarou like she figured it out.

He was un-phased as usual "the only way they could've managed, over the stalls, it's perfectly easy for myself and a few others to get over the stalls" Houtarou answered coolly.

Ibara grumbled but was forced to except the explanation.

Houtarou turned to Chitanda who was looking a little star struck "do you remember the people who entered the bathroom in the past hour?" he asked her.

Of course she did "hai, 4 people; the college student in the blue coat, Fukuro second, the man with the bandaged finger, the man with the long hair in a ponytail," she answered.

The Inspector rounded the people up and proceeded to have them attempt to climb over the stall. The only ones capable of doing so were Satoshi and the college student, Kagashi Yosuke. The rest didn't fit over the stall.

The large man's name was Natsume Satsuki and the playboy's name was Yuki Kiyomoto.

Something was different however; Houtarou just couldn't point out what it was. A police came with a bag that had the knife in it; Houtarou took it casually "hey, you can't"

"I suggest you watch your tongue, Rookie Cop, this kid may look like just a college kid but he's the best detective in all of this side of Japan" one of cops told him. The Cop backed down and let Houtarou examine the murder weapon, he narrowed his eyes.

"This is odd… there's blood on the grip but none at all on the finger guard it has no blood" Houtarou mentioned.

"So? What's different about that?" Satoshi asked.

"If I were to be stabbing you with a knife like this than my entire hand would be on the grip so naturally if I'd really committed a murder with a knife than once I'd let go, no blood would have likely ever touched the grip at all" Houtarou explained, he touched his bangs as he still did after a few years.

He walked forward to the door "usually I'm against physical labor like this but…" Houtarou jumped onto the wall, just as he figured "there's blood here too, Chitanda, do you find anything strange about where the killer was when he escaped assuming he was right here?" he asked.

Chitanda thought hard then her eyes widened "he climbed right over the door but the body was position against the door" she said.

"Yes but I don't believe the killer _climbed_ over the stall at all" he said and everyone's eyes widened as if they hadn't even considered the possibility.

"The victim herself left that trace of blood when she was thrown over the stalls, the murderer must have tied a string around the knife hence the lack of blood next to a spot on the hilt. She was then stabbed and thrown over the wall, once she hit on the ground, the killer simply yanked on the string pulling the knife up causing that blood splatter, using gloves he simply untied the string and dropped the knife over the wall to appear to be a robbery" Houtarou explained calmly.

"But she wouldn't let the killer simply do all this quietly, would she?" Satoshi questioned.

Houtarou stared and shook his head "no, of course not hence where the strangle marks come in, it's clear that the killer was strangled beforehand so she would pass out. So the only one who's capable of such a feat of strength is you" he pointed at the large man "right Mr. Satsuki he asked, he jumped down from the stall walking forward.

"You have no proof! Even if you arrest me now" he said, eyes wide.

"Mr. Satsuki, wasn't the bandage when you came in on your wedding finger before now is it?" he asked

"Ah! Oreki, that's right!" Chitanda said, eyes going sparkly.

"The bandage was easily unraveled to use as a strangling weapon and to tie around a knife in order to kill the victim. Take the bandage off, officers and you'll find all the proof you'll need as tracers of her skin and of course her blood will be there" he said.

"That was like… a real detective show murder, just like an anime!" Satoshi mentioned "so cool" he said.

"It was amazing!" Chitanda agreed.

"Mmm… let's get some food, I'm hungry" he mentioned.

"Excuse me sir" a man walked up to them, he held several boxes "I wanted to give my apologies for all the commotion in my restaurant and I hope you'll come again so I offer complimentary desserts" he said.

"Ah! Thank you very much" of course Ibara takes them, they start to walk out of the restaurant and Houtarou whips out his ball cap to hide his eyes.

"Oreki-san! Give us a quote!"

"Anything to say about the murder!"

"Show us your face" they all shoved mics in his face while he kept his hat down, stubbornly hiding his face.

"I don't anything I don't have to, what I have to I do quickly" he said "I solved that case because I had to and I did it quickly" he said then walked off, eventually the reporters gave up following him and asked questions from the Inspector Hara.

"Whoa! Just like Sherlock Holmes, he never got his picture taken! He always hid it behind a hat" Satoshi added.

"It's troublesome if I get famous" Houtarou answered calmly, they all laughed and walked along with him. He glanced up at the moon, he smiled very minimally _I guess solving cases isn't so bad, it's not rose colored but more like blood red but somehow alluring. _He glanced at Chitanda in the moonlight _like someone else I know._

**Just so you people don't freak out, the murder case itself is originally not my thoughts, I'm not really capable of coming up with brilliant murder deductions and solving cases but lucky I have a great source to help with that.**

**The original case is from a show called Detective Conan or Case Closed, the episode is 32 for sub and 33 for dub. It's a great show by the way if you can get past the not great style of drawing but it's unique and the best murder mystery series I've seen so far.**

** DETECTIVE CONAN OR CASE CLOSED: EPISODE 32 SUB OR EPISODE 33 DUB**

**REVIEW PLZ**


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